Where have we been?...UTAH

This is Part 1 or the first week of our trip to Utah.

Grandmother is not in order but we did get to see her on Sunday before we headed to Bear Lake. She has now moved back to Houston and is only perdicted to live for a short time more. I was glad we got to spend some time with her.

To help break up the 20+ hour drive we stayed overnight in Durango, CO and the next morning went to Mesa Verde. We told the kids we were going to see how the Lamanites lived. They thought that was really cool.

There are big tours you can go on like the one above but there are some very tall ladders that you have to climb, like 17+ feet and we thought it might be a bit much for our little kids, maybe in a few years.

If you can stop looking at that amazing family you will see in the bottom right hand corner the dwellings you could see from this overlook.

On the trail back from seeing the self-guided dwellings. We learned that they keep a few of the underground dwellings set aside for the use of relatives of hte original indians so that they may perform spiritual rituals and such.

Inside one of the dwellings.
We made it to Utah on Saturday afternoon. The kids (and mom and dad) were so glad to be out of the car. It was my mom's birthday and so everyone came up to my parents to celebrate. It was so fun to see everyone!

Sunday after church we headed to Bear Lake for a few days of sunshine, outdoors, and water.

Monday we hit the beach. The weather was not the best but that did not stop us from having a great time. Arabella spent most of that day in a chair or on someone's lap because she did not want anything to do with the sand touching her feet. Silly girl. She did eventually decide the wet sand was okay.

Oh she is a cutie!

This is Will, my sister Jana's youngest little guy! He was so fun to see! And check out those blue eyes-amazing!

We were privileged to eat alot of good food while we were there. Hoagies delish!...

especially when they are as big as your head. He ate all but about 3 bites-that a boy!

Arabella finally touching the sand!

She quickly caught on to the putting the mud in the buckets and dumping it out!

To tired to play anymore!

It is too bad that I did not get a picture of this castle when it was more complete, before Jon destroyed it. Calee and Randy did some amazing work. Then we built a big wall all around it. Joey and Jon made a volcano at the entrance with a moat.

Malisa and Tom brought their boat which meant some water skiing, wake boarding and we pulled the kids on their tube in the shallow end and they loved it. We also had a jet ski for 2 days and that was a lot of fun. Joey really enjoyed that. Mostly the kids loved playing in the sand. The lake is so beautiful and clean!

Love these two!

This is one of the last things we did before leaving the beach. Jon loved it.

We played games in the open field areas, swam in the pool, rode on some great multi-person bikes (like could hold 6 plus 2 small children), rested, played games, made crafts, and enjoyed time together. We also went to a great play called Juanito Bandito Rides Again. It was so funny!

My youngest sister Jana (left), my mom (center) and my older sister Malisa.

Friday, Peter had to work and I got my haircut. I did laundry and the kids played at Grandma's house even though my parents had to work that day. We watched a movie projected on to the wall of my dad's workshop.

Saturday I had breakfast with Wendy and Heather my old roomies. It was so fun to see them. Then I met up with Peter and the kids and we went with Peter's dad to take Grandmother on a drive up the canyon. It was beautiful.

Then we hiked the Y. I remember it being steep but short and it still was but when you are used to being at about 500 ft elevation the altitude just might kill you. It was great though and it was a first for Peter.

Derick was taking the picture but this was the group that went! Way to go to all!

Our family; from the side.

This concludes part one of our trip to Utah. I was not as good about getting pictures of the second weeks activities but you should all look forward to seeing Jon's shiny pants!

Fort Worth Museum

The week of the 24th of July we made two trips to the Fort Worth Children's Museum. We went on Monday and the kids had so much fun they asked if we could return on Satruday with dad and that is just what we did.

We spent some quality time with this nice young employee building with these slats of wood, not really blocks. The tower they built nearly came to Jon's waist.
Horrible picture, I tried. This is all of my kids inside of a dinosaur's foot print. Talk about big feet?!

You can not go to a Children's Museum and not find a water feature. This is only part of it. The kids had fun but if you want a great water feature try the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the best I have seen yet!

Jon spent nearly 45 minutes doing this. There was a sensor so that as something passed through it beeped like at the grocery store. He thought this was the coolest thing.

Joey of course spent some quality time at the train station.

And Arabella found a baby to play with in the hospital area. Gratefully, all of these are in the same spot so I could easily scan the room and find all 3 kids, whew!

That night for FHE we talked about pioneers and then made a map of sorts with cookie dough. It did not turn out quite like I had invisioned but the kids loved it. We discussed what types of landscapes the pioneers would have traveled through and what sorts of animals they may have seen and cut shapes accordingly. Our mountains broke but there is a temple, wagon, tree, fish, rabbit, Utah, and a star. I think we may do this one again.

Round two at the museum. We started upstairs this time. They have a traveling exhibit right now all about Leonardo DaVinci and his inventions. It was really neat! The kids liked this bridge building part where you then walk across the bridge once you take the supports out and it will hold you up.

She thinks she is so cool when she does something the boys do.

We also saw a show at the planetarium all about the Texas sky. The kids were unsure at first when it was so dark but they soon liked it. Afterward, Jon thought it would be a good idea to touch the $1.5 million dollar projector. Not one of those better "Please, don't let your child touch that" moments. We had a good time and the Fort Worth Museum is only a few minutes furter away than the Dallas Museum so I love that I can go to both with my pass!

Oh and if you have been wanting to see the picture of the bird on my head and Arabella screaming check my friends blog listed on the side The Maas Family. You will see she posted some zoo pictures but they are a little ways down. Oh the memories!